Armenian police station siege ends as 20 gunmen surrender

Twenty anti-government gunmen who were holed up in an Armenian police station for two weeks surrendered on Sunday, security services said, ending a tense stand-off that left two police officers dead and triggered mass protests.

Protestors block a street leading to Erebuni police station seized by gunmen – supporters of fringe jailed opposition leader Zhirair Sefilyan – in Yerevan early Sunday

The armed men gave themselves up a day after police warned they would storm the building to draw a line under the crisis, which had sparked at times violent demonstrations by opposition supporters in the capital Yerevan.

“The security forces’ anti-terrorist operation has ended and led to the members of the armed group laying down their weapons and surrendering to the authorities,” the national security service said in a statement.